Corporate users were the target of about 38 per cent of the 25,811 financial malware attacks recorded in the UAE during the first half of the year as hackers exploited remote working vulnerabilities amid the Covid-19 pandemic, according to cyber security company Kaspersky.
While the number of financial malware attacks fell, compared to the same period a year ago, the proportion of corporate users singled out by cyber criminals is on the rise, the Moscow-based company said on Sunday.
“As local businesses have continued to adjust to remote work scenarios and the rest of the circumstances surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic, we have continued to witness cyber criminals using this to their advantage, exploiting the situation however they can," said Oleg Kupreev, security researcher at Kaspersky.
"When looking at such statistics, we believe it is evident that cyber criminals are more commonly targeting unsuspecting corporate users in the UAE as a way to compromise corporate systems."
Cyber security threats and greater restrictions in global data flows are among the 10 top geopolitical risks in 2021, consultancy Eurasia Group said in its Top risks 2021 report.
As more people work remotely and stay online for longer due to coronavirus-related restrictions, there will be an increase in their exposure to cyber attacks, the consultancy said.
Companies in the UAE have become susceptible to financial malware attacks as more employees work outside the relative safety of the corporate network, Kaspersky research shows.
This distribution of the workforce makes it more critical to ensure the protection of the personal endpoint devices of people, who need access back-end systems to continue performing their jobs, the company said.
Besides securing these devices, cyber security training of employees is important to defend against the "growing scourge" of financial malware that uses phishing techniques on individual users, Kaspersky said.
“It is especially financial phishing that has become one of the most popular tools used by cyber criminals to make money. It does not require much investment or technical expertise from a hacker and can be propagated quickly," said Mr Kupreev.
"In most cases, successful scammers win access either to the victim’s money or data that can be sold or otherwise monetised. For any business, this points to how important it is to address one of the weakest links in the cyber security chain – that of the individual user. It also signifies the importance of remaining vigilant from a cyber security perspective, especially during difficult operating conditions."
Employees must only install applications from reliable sources, such as official app stores, Kaspersky said.
Beyond the basic cyber security solutions and training, companies must also consider using anti-advanced persistent threat and endpoint detection and response technology to further shore up their network defences.
“With the landscape unlikely to change for the foreseeable future, it is best to combine sophisticated cyber security solutions with continuously evolving training to keep employees appraised of the latest threats, especially when it comes to financial malware,” said Mr Kupreev.
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Honeymoonish
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Sam Smith
Where: du Arena, Abu Dhabi
When: Saturday November 24
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
What it means to be a conservationist
Who is Enric Sala?
Enric Sala is an expert on marine conservation and is currently the National Geographic Society's Explorer-in-Residence. His love of the sea started with his childhood in Spain, inspired by the example of the legendary diver Jacques Cousteau. He has been a university professor of Oceanography in the US, as well as working at the Spanish National Council for Scientific Research and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Biodiversity and the Bio-Economy. He has dedicated his life to protecting life in the oceans. Enric describes himself as a flexitarian who only eats meat occasionally.
What is biodiversity?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme, all life on earth – including in its forests and oceans – forms a “rich tapestry of interconnecting and interdependent forces”. Biodiversity on earth today is the product of four billion years of evolution and consists of many millions of distinct biological species. The term ‘biodiversity’ is relatively new, popularised since the 1980s and coinciding with an understanding of the growing threats to the natural world including habitat loss, pollution and climate change. The loss of biodiversity itself is dangerous because it contributes to clean, consistent water flows, food security, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The natural world can be an ally in combating global climate change but to do so it must be protected. Nations are working to achieve this, including setting targets to be reached by 2020 for the protection of the natural state of 17 per cent of the land and 10 per cent of the oceans. However, these are well short of what is needed, according to experts, with half the land needed to be in a natural state to help avert disaster.
About Housecall
Date started: July 2020
Founders: Omar and Humaid Alzaabi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech
# of staff: 10
Funding to date: Self-funded
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Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
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